Cerinian Revengence
by CharmedPluto
Summary: Taking only the cyborgs from MGRR really. Follow my OC, Zane, through his quest to find Krystal on Cerinia. After a recon mission goes fifty kinds of wrong, he has no choice left; he must don the enhancements of a cyborg and enlist the help of the Star Fox team, unaware that his sister is among their ranks.
1. Chapter 1

Note: AU Where SF Command never happens. Takes place after Assault.

(Year 2331, 2 years after Aparoid invasion.)

Space is a big place. It's full of stars, planets, and other objects that carry their own unique features. Some are lush, full of life, and thriving with various species of both flora and fauna. Then there are others that, even with their atmospheric make up, couldn't support life even if they wanted due to simply being Gas Giants. Among all of these planet and systems that make up our Galaxy there is a certain System that lays on the outskirts of the Galaxy. The Mu system. Here can be found but three bodies. A young Yellow Giant class sun, a lonely terrestrial planet and its moon. The planet had a name, and a thriving culture that was decimated long before its time: this was Cerinia...or it was. What became of it remains with only two beings of this Milky Way Galaxy. Below on the small planets surface, fighting ran rampant. Cerinia's local resistance was holding it's own but the push from the last cell of the Venomian Army was pressing hard. It was made clear that they would take this planet or die trying

"Damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it, da-"

Something exploded behind Zane, threw him off his feet. Heat washed over the vulpine's back as he fell into the hallways of what used to be the Senate Building. The grey fox scrambled to his feet and pressed himself against the plaster walls as the mechs and rebels in power armor ran passed him. Surely, they knew he was in here...or did those morons make the assumption that the plasma bolt had killed him. He slumped to the ground trying to clear his head.

 _Okay, rundown...The Senate is fucked...Andronian resistance controls the place now...my parents and sister are all missing, and as far as I know, I'm the only native on the planet. Fantastic…_

Zane had been out in the remote Mu system for the last year or two for one reason: finding his sister. That's what landed him back home in the first place. After only finding dead end leads and odd jobs he figured that the only place remaining before calling her death a confirmed case was home. Cerinia had been caught in the midst of a fifteen year long conflict, spanning all the way back from when Andross declared open war on the Federation. To this day, no word has been sent that the war ended long ago. Zane figured that wouldn't matter much, the fighting here was so rooted into the norm that no amount of hollow words could convince these people otherwise. From the arming, most of the Venomian forces were mercenaries. They had no chemical weapons which was a good sign, however they did have mechs and power armor, something only a formal military could provide.

He peered around the corner, the area had fallen silent now. Zane hadn't expected these forces to still be here, awaiting orders that would never come, all for a war that had ended years ago. He looked at his wrist, immediately considering call his ship's AI for assistance.

"Bad idea," he muttered, closing the cover of the top of the datapad attached to his gauntlet. They'd triangulate his position in no time if he called now. Plus it would take time for Landon, his ship's AI, to react for extraction. He had to evade detection and find a way out of here. The vulpine's hand instinctively grabbed the grip of the pistol on his hip. He gritted teeth, and peered out again.

Three mechs and a few guys in power armor, stood within spitting distance of his position. All his handgun would do was piss them off. His own armor was old tech, barely a step up from Dragon Scale armor and had no shielding tech to speak of. Across the way sat an armored vehicle, sporting a turret and enough space to carry a fair amount of backup. Going between them was not a good idea.

Their backs were turned, if he made his move now he might be able to slip passed them unnoticed so long as the humvee was completely empty. Of course luck was never on his side, and as soon as Zane was going to make his move a new figure stepped out of behind an armored vehicle, a Jackal by the look of him. This guy was easily seven feet tall, but he lacked fur...and flesh for that matter. He wasn't wearing power armor which was bulky and blocky looking from a distance, this "armor" looked more like his actual body. The only real flesh and fur he had was on his head and face. On his hip sat a sheathed sword, a samurai katana from the look of it. Zane held his position, pointing his ears trying hear what they were saying.

"Has this section been cleared?" the officer asked

"Yessir, all resistance has either retreated or been killed." the squad leader, a mid sized monkey replied

"So certain are you?"

Zane ducked back now fully in the shadow of the door, hand on his pistol grip. The Jackal approached, sword grinding against the inside of the sheathe as his drew it. The sound of his footsteps were drowned out by the thudding of Zane's heart. No doubt now, they knew he was here. The vulpine desperately tried to control his breathing and prayed to whatever gods would listen that this...thing would go away. He jumped but managed not to scream when the blade punched through the wall, just nicking his cheek enough to draw blood. He flung a hand to his mouth just to be on the safe side and as quietly as possible scooted away from the dark green weapon that had sliced through solid plaster like butter. The blade withdrew. Zane didn't move.

"Search that house. Someone is spying on his."

 _Son of a bitch!_

Before he knew it soldiers in power armor began to form up, ready to storm the house. Zane got up and moved, heading up the single flight upstairs, just barely able to get to the top floor as the door was breached. Up on the top floor had made his way to the master bedroom, looking for either a balcony or, failing that, the bathroom window. Zane found his balcony thankfully and used that as a means to get to the roof, hand still on his bleeding cheek. It had been sliced pretty badly, easily requiring stitches when he got back. He made his way across the roofs and eventually back to ground level before racing into the nearby treeline.

"THERE! WE'VE GOT A RUNNER!" someone shouted.

Laser and bullets filled their air faster than a hoard of angry hornets. Zane made a beeline into the trees, not caring where he was going so long as it wasn't here. He could hear the stomping of soldiers as they chased after him, however one set seemed...faster than the others. Suddenly, the Jackal from earlier, who had been leaping through the trees slammed into the ground in front of him, cutting off his retreat. Again he sneered, his green eyes falling upon Zane as he flipped his blade around.

"Konichi wa, little fox..." he said

Zane drew his pistol, clicking off the safety. The Jackal gasped, throwing up his hands with feigned fear.

"Oh no...he has a gun, oh help, whatever shall a cyborg of Hephaestus Industries do against such a formidable weapons?"

"A cyborg?" Zane echoed, "I thought cyborgs weren't this extreme."

"Cybernetic enhancements have been around for years, little fox, ever since the G-diffuser systems institution back in 2301 and even before then. Hephaestus has just found use for it outside of the medical field."

"Who are you?"

"I am Cody Justicar."

"Justicar? I know that name, you're a mercenary..."

"Guilty as charged. You're presence here interferes with my mission, and I don't like it when my missions are interfered with. No choice now, I have to kill you."

Zane started backing up, taking aim as he did.

"I'll humor you," Cody said, "You can have on free shot on me, better make it count..."

Zane was a great shot, so it was only natural he put his first shot right between Cody's eyes. The Jackal's head snapped back and he stumbled as the momentum of the round collided with his skull. The cyborg's head snapped back forward, sneer still barely visible as the Jackal hung his head.

"Tsk tsk tsk..." he sounded, "What a waste of a shot."

Cody dashed, Zane moved, but Cody's blade caught a piece of his side, spraying a column of blood onto the trees. Zane gasped sharply, attempting to run, on hand holding his side, the other firing back at the Jackal with his pistol.

"Bullets only serve to annoy me," the cyborg boasted, "They're like flies waiting to be squashed!"

It wasn't more than ten seconds before Zane's pain level went from a five or six to an instant ten. When Cody closed the gap, he sliced upwards, catching Zane in the armpit…and severing his right arm at the shoulder. The strike caused Zane to stumble, screaming in agony as the blood began to flow like a river. Now it didn't matter he slammed his other hand into the ground, activating his wrist comn

"Landon! Emergency extraction! NOW!"

"Acknowledged, extraction in five seconds."

Cody laughed slowly approaching, flicking the blood off of his weapon.

"It's a dishonor to slay one with a dirty blade," he stated twirling his weapon, "Know that I may have killed you, but I don't hate you."

The Jackal was now standing over Zane, who was starting to get light-headed from blood loss, and raised his weapon to slay the Cerinian. There was a flash of white, and Zane felt the cold kiss of air conditioning as well as the plated metal of the floor beneath him. He let out a sigh.

"Too close..." he muttered laughing a little bit through gritted teeth. A stretched lifted up from beneath him, and settled onto a track taking Zane to the medical wing of his ship, the dreadnought _Cerinian Tear._ He set his had back, trying not to move as the hands of the stretched wrapped up his stump of an arm in a tourniquet. The bleeding stopped shortly after, thank the gods, and he began the process over getting a blood transfusion, which would normally call for a knock-out but with his blood pressure so low it was too big of a risk to take.

"I detect that had you been down on the Cerinian surface for another sixty seconds, your would have died." Landon, the ship's AI, stated.

"There was a cyborg down there, Landon. He was fully functional...and powerful."

"You do still have those cybernetics stored in the Tech Lab, but I must inform you that the chances of being able to return to your original body are..."

"Don't tell me." Zane said sternly, quickly cutting off his AI, "If that's what it takes to find Krystal down there...then this body can rot. I have one request though, Landon."

"Yes, Captain?"

"At least make it look like this one."

"Understood, beginning customization of Cybernetic Enhancements, model Alpha, Ares. Estimated completion time is 15 hours Galactic Standard."

"Good..."

Zane was hell bent on finding Krystal, and if this was what it would take to find her so be it. Even if she was gone...he'd at least take back Cerinia from the Venomians, even if it meant he had to go it alone. That got him thinking. He smirked, "Call up the Federation, Landon, leave a message with a support request. Call in that merc group that help bail out Corneria...what was their name...Star Fox?"

"Message away, shall I send coordinates as well."

"Send those directly to Fox's ship Great Fox, whether or not they get paid to come here is irrelevant. James will come, be it for the money, or his conscience."

Zane lay in that bed, waiting for his levels to come back up to normal. This was far from over...


	2. Chapter 2

(Year 2331. Six months later)

The Super Carrier _Great Fox_ slipped into the Mu System from Warp Flight. Sitting in the Captain's chair was Fox McCloud, leader of the galactic renowned Star Fox team. His fingers tapped the arms of his chair as though this was just another boring grind, which from the information he'd been given, was already starting to prove true.

"We have arrived in the Mu System, Fox." Rob reported from the navigation's station.

"Start scanning for any signs of the derelict ship, let me know if you find anything." the vulpine replied not really moving or even sounding like he cared too much.

"Is anyone else here actually curious about this ship? Like maybe what it was doing this far beyond Federation Space?" Slippy, the ships mechanic asked from underneath one of the comn terminals, a relay had shorted itself open so intra ship communications were down...temporarily of course.

"Stand by..." Fox replied pulling up the intel, "Okay, here's the briefing verbatim." -he cleared his throat "Six months ago, a civilian dreadnought named _Cerinian Tear_ was tracked on a flight path beyond the rim. It was intercepted by Federation Authorities but discovered to have clearance to leave FedSpace. The ships captain promised reports back to central command every month. The ship was thought to have made its way to the Mu system, a post just beyond FedSpace on a classified recon mission. Team Star Fox's objective is to locate the ship and report back the findings. If the vessel has been disabled, the team has permission to board and initiate an investigation in regards to what happened to the ship. If the vessel is not disabled, communication protocol is to be implemented. Question the Captain or Acting Captain as to why reporting has not been accomplished in these passed six months. With Regards; General Nosi, Eric J. Cornerian Army." -he sighed, "Followed by a bunch of contact information and finally a warning about this being For Official Use Only and how it's punishable under this Article of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and under Civilian Contractor Justice Code 22 and blah blah blah, we're not Star Wolf, we don't do illegal shit."

"Secret Recon?" Krystal commented from the ops station, which was maybe 10 feet from where Slippy was working, "Interesting..."

"How so Krystal?"

The blue furred vixen swiveled in her chair to face Fox, "The Mu system only has one planet, Cerinia. As far as I know that whole world is...well dead."

"Dead?"

"It was...once home to me; then suddenly people showed up, and started attacking us for no apparent reason. Rumor had it that they wanted to use the planet as an R&D lab specifically for cybernetics. I got off planet and after kinda wandering around I ended up on Sauria."

"Hmm…cybernetics R&D?"

"I wonder what they developed down there." Slippy found himself muttering as he set the new relay, which was no bigger than a credit card into place with a satisfying click, "Okay, try it now, Krystal."

"Bridge to Crew Quarters, Falco, can you hear me?" Krystal cleared.

"Rodg, I read."

"Excellent, comn are back up."

"Slippy, you're a little genius, we own you one." Falco remarked, which was rare.

Fox smiled, it was nice having the crew back together, they'd split for a while, taking time to themselves as a reward for stopping the Aparoids a few years back.

"C'mon, troubleshooting this thing is too easy." Slippy said sounding a little cocky.

Rob turned, "Signal detected approximately 3 AU from Planet Cerinia."

Fox looked up, "Put it up on the monitor."

On the holoprojecter that sat in the center of the bridge, a large expanse of space became visible, off on the upper left side, one could just barely make out the dimmed lights of a rather large ship.

"Further analysis indicates it is a dreadnought class vessel."

"That must be our derelict..." Slippy commented, "but it looks like it's been out of commission from quite some time." -the frog turned to Rob, arms crossed over his chest, "Rob, can you get a temp reading on the engines?"

"Affirmative, scan in progress."

Fox arced a brow and faced his chubby friend, "What exactly will that tell us?"

"The reading can give us an idea of how long this ship has been out here. A standard plasma driven engine loses all heat traces within around two months of being in vacuum. Unfortunately, most dreadnoughts don't sport standard engines. The only real variation is usually size, and every now and then number of engines."

"Dreadnoughts are big ships, gotta have a lot of thrust to get them moving, even in vacuum."

"Scans show that the three Mercury class engines have a surface temperature of -38 degrees." Rob reported.

Slippy made a few calculations in his head, "So this ship has been offline for about 2-3 weeks give or take."

"IFF tags extracted, ship is named _Cerinian Tear_."

Fox smirked, "Bring us in system, put us in orbit 2000 kilometers outside of the ship's already projected orbit."

Krystal nodded, punching in a few commands at the nav station. _Great Fox's_ engines pulsed, propelling the ship onto course toward the Derelict Dreadnought. Many questions lingered on Fox's mind as he sat aboard and watched the ship on the holoport. As far as he could tell, _Cerinian Tear_ didn't seem like conventional means could disable it, dreadnoughts often sported some of the heaviest armor in the galaxy, it took at least two or three ships combining firepower to punch through that armored hull. Nevermind the armor, weaponry on a standard dreadnought usually consisted or a pair of forward guns, two entire decks of guns just as powerful if not more so than the forward weapons on the port and starboard decks and hundreds of point defense weapons, auto turrets mainly. It might take two to three ships combined to scratch a dreadnought but with that much firepower, two to three ships might not even make it into firing range before a broadside barrage sliced them to ribbons. From what the vulpine could see, there was no debris floating around the ship, meaning it probably wasn't disabled by battle. More likely the vessel had run into a malfunction and needed to be towed in for repairs. That option wasn't possible since towing a ship via warp jump proves...complicated. Mission reports from a few years ago spoke of a group that tried it out just to see if it was possible. All inspections had been complied with and there had not been any major or minor maintenance on the towing vessel. However, when the ship's warp drive fired, it tore the towed ship in two, leaving one half in the system where it broke down and the other half somewhere in oblivion. The towing ship survived the experiment without a single casualty and since no crew was aboard the derelict ship being towed, it taught a valuable lesson, that repairs in remote systems had to be paid to go out system instead of a tow being needed.

"Warning, multiple ships detected within Cerinia's orbit. IFF indicates they are rouge Venomian forces." Rob warned jarring Fox from thought.

"What the hell?" he muttered, then shook his head, "Show them on screen."

The holoport switched view, showing the dark side of Cerinia. Holed up in the planet's shadow sat easily 15 ships all marked with Venomian colors.

"What are these guys doing here?" Slippy wondered

"I've got a bad feeling about this. Rob, keep us out of sight,"

"Stealth systems engaged."

And thank the gods for that upgrade which had cost a small fortune to install. As the ship drew in closer to synchronized orbit with the seemingly derelict _Cerinian Tear_ the worry on Fox's face became more and more apparent. What disabled this ship? What was the Venomian Army doing here? Why was General Niosi even remotely interested in this derelict?

"We are within communications range of the _Cerinian Tear_." Rob reported.

"Hail them on an encrypted channel." the vulpine ordered.

As he spoke the door to the bridge opened and the blue avian ace Falco stepped onto the deck.

"Did I miss anything?" he asked.

"We just hailed the ship, hopefully we get an answer."

"Comn link established."

 _Apparently the ship still has power...hopefully there's some crew aboard still._ "This is Captain Fox McCloud of the Super Carrier _Great Fox_ to dreadnought _Cerinian Tear_ do you read?"

" _Cerinian Tear_ to _Great Fox,_ we read you Lima Charlie." a voice on the other end answered, this was male.

"Do I have the pleasure of addressing the Captain of this vessel?"

"Negative, Captain Greyson is currently planetside, I'm Commander Landon, Acting Captain until Greyson returns."

"Alright then, we were sent to this system under orders of General Niosi investigating why proper reporting procedures have not been followed for the passed six months,"

"Of course. Reporting procedures have not been followed due to...snags within our mission here. Long range communications has been jammed and we're still trying to find the source planetside."

"We can offer assistance if necessary."

"And I would gladly accept it, Captain McCloud. I need you to send down a support team to Cerinia's surface. Locate Captain Greyson and get him back to the ship ASAP. One or two members of your team should suffice for this operation."

"What's the nature of the operation?"

"I'm sorry, but that is classified. I cannot discuss this one an unsecured channel especially with those Venomian ships on the opposite side of the planet."

Another feed patched into the call.

"Landon," the new voice said, "Give me a status update."

"I have Captain McCloud on the comns looking for you. Enemy activity has not change since our last Codec call."

"Copy that, I'm seeing a lot of cyborg and UG activity down here. I think they might be up to something."

"Shall I send back up?"

"Do that, I'll fall back a little ways and meet whoever is sent at these coordinates. Zane out."

"Did you catch all of that Captain McCloud?"

"Rodger, forward the coordinates, we'll be there soon. Fox out."

Fox cut the comns and stood up stretching.

"Slippy, prep an Arwing, make sure the SI and all that is good to go. I'll be down within the next hour or so."

"On it. But didn't I teach everyone here how to SI the Arwing?" Slippy replied clearly confused.

"You did, but since I'm going solo it'll save me a little time."

Slippy shrugged, "Alright..."

"You're going alone again?" Krystal asked, a hand on her hip.

"Yes and no...that Zane guy will be with me, so no need to worry."

She sighed a little but went back to her console without another word. Fox took note...that usually meant she had something stirring in that pretty head of hers. He just prayed it wasn't what he thought it would be. The orange furred vulpine stepped off of the bridge, headed for the locker room to change into his G-suit, which at the moment he wasn't wearing. Instead favoring a standard set of civilian attire. On his mind mainly sat the idea of cyborgs and UGs gathering for something down on the surface. Fox slipped into his combat gear, did a quick weapons check on his blaster pistol he always carried, and finally headed down to the hanger. When he arrived, Slippy had a headset on.

"MOCC, Spacecraft 1001." he said. There was a pause. "Yes sir, full crew show as of 1330 local."

Fox smiled, "Does it make you wish you were still a Crew Chief, Slip?"

The frog scoffed, "Fuck that noise; rain or shine you're out there fixing or inspecting aircraft. Long hours, lotta wasting time because you're waiting for people to answer their radios...I like how we run things here."

Fox nodded, "What's the status on this bird?"

"According to the forms, no Red Xs and the next PE isn't due for another four months."

"And on the digital side?"

"Uh..." -the frog keyed his radio, "MOCC, Spacecraft 1001..."-a pause, "Yes sir, could you scan GO81 for discrepancies?"-another pause, this one a tad longer "Rodg, thanks MOCC."

No matter how hard he tried, the vulpine would never quite understand how the world of spacecraft maintenance worked…

"MOCC says this bird's clear of discrepancies."

"I'll take it then," he said hopping aboard the jet fighter and sealing the overhead hatch. Fox began his preflight check, ensuring everything worked as it should. Outside, Slippy continued chatting up MOCC via comns, making sure everything was good to go.

"Spacecraft 1001, Toad 1," the radio sounded.

Fox keyed back, "Go ahead."

"Preflight check?"

"Sir, preflight check is good to go. Requesting engine start."

"Standby for clearance."-Slippy switched channels, "MOCC, 1001."

"Go ahead." Rob replied

"Sir, requesting engine start on 1001 in prep for take off."

"Rodg, showing engine start at 1342 local."

The toad jumped back onto Fox's channel, "Fox, engine start has been granted."

With a reflexive flick of his fingers, the vulpine began the sequence to start the Arwing's powerful engines. There came a whirring noise as the engines powered up eventually rising to idle speeds. Slippy stepped back, two marshaling wands in each hand, standing a little ways away from the nose of the aircraft.

"Tower, this is Arwing 1001, requesting permission to taxi from Spot Alpha 1 to Runway 2 for take off."

Krystal, who was still up on the bridge made a quick check on the air traffic in the area. Routine, sure but it was for safety purposes, "Arwing 1001, permission granted. Taxi to runway via Taxiway Alpha 23 and hold short of Runway 2."

"Taxi via Taxiway Alpha 23 and hold short of Runway 2, copy all." Fox replied before switching channels

"Toad 1; 1001, Taxi path received, awaiting marshaling."

Slippy didn't reply, instead his arms extended over his head, motioning Fox to come forward. Fox gunned his engines from idle to power and the spacecraft lurched forward, starting to roll along the hanger floor. Using the stationary wing guides that had been installed, the toad guided Fox's ship out of its parking spot and onto the taxiway. It wasn't long before the toad went from signaling Fox forward to signaling him to shift to the right. As such, Fox complied, shifting the craft slowly to the right, almost pivoting in place. When the craft was facing down the taxi way, Slippy ceased his marshaling and rendered a salute to his friend in the cockpit. Fox returned the gesture with a little smile on his face.

As Arwing 1001 taxied away from the spot, Slippy jumped channels, "MOCC, block Spacecraft 1001."

"Affirmative." Rob replied on the other end.

Fox taxied to his given spot before keying the comns again, "Tower, 1001, holding short of Runway 2. Permission to taxi onto runway."

There was a slight pause.

"Permission granted, 1001, standby for take off."

"Copy."

A few minutes later, Fox's Arwing was in position. Ahead of him was nothing but a solid metal door, beyond it was the vacuum of space.

"Depressurizing Runway 2,"

There came a slight hissing as the atmosphere along the runway vented out. The doorway back to the flightline had already sealed behind Fox's Arwing, there was no backing out now. The metal door ahead of him hissed open showing the blackness of space with Planet Cerinia glowing like a shiny piece of amethyst in the distance.

"Runway 2, depressurized. Arwing 1001, you have permission to take off."

"Copy that."

Fox gunned his engines again. The Arwing lurched forward quickly picking up speed and escaping _Great Fox's_ artificial gravity. The ship rocketed out of the hanger and into the cold unknown of space. Once it had cleared the doors Fox radioed back.

"Arwing 1001 to _Great Fox_ take off successful."

"Copy that, Fox, good luck out there."

Now the real mission began, it was time to find this Zane person and figure out what was going on down on the Cerinian surface.


End file.
